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THE  ADAPTABILITY  OF  THE 

WHITE  MAN  TO  TROPICAL 

AMERICA 


By  ELLSWORTH  HUNTINGTON,  Ph.D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Geography,  Yale  University 


Reprinted  from  The  Journal  of  Race  Development,  Vol.  5, 
No  2.  October,  1914 


Reprinted  from  The  Journal  of  Race  Development 
Vol.  5,  No.  2,  Octobei,  1914 


THE  ADAPTABILITY  OF  THE  WHITE  MAN  TO 
TROPICAL  AMERICA 

By  Ellsworth  Huntington,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of 
Geography,   Yale  University 

The  tropical  portions  of  America  and  Africa,  as  every  one 
knows,  are  the  richest  unexploited  regions  in  the  world.  If 
ever  they  are  to  be  developed  the  work  must  apparently  be 
done  by  people  of  European  origin,  for  the  native  races 
seem  incapable  of  doing  it  alone,  and  Europe  and  America 
are  scarcely  willing  to  leave  the  task  to  Asiatics.  Yet  in 
spite  of  innumerable  attempts  during  the  past  four  hundred 
years  the  problem  of  the  adaptation  of  the  white  races  to 
a  tropical  environment  still  remains  one  of  the  most  serious 
that  has  ever  confronted  mankind.  Shall  the  white  man 
forever  be  an  outsider,  a  mere  exploiter,  or  shall  he  become 
a  permanent  denizen  of  the  regions  which  he  develops?  This 
question  has  been  debated  so  often  and  so  vainly  that  the 
present  discussion  would  scarcely  be  warranted,  were  it  not 
for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  certain  phases  of  the 
subject  do  not  seem  to  have  received  due  attention;  and, 
in  the  second  place,  recent  investigations  suggest  a  new 
way  whereby  at  least  a  part  of  the  truth  may  be  discovered. 
The  question  to  be  solved  is  briefly  this:  Modern  medical 
science  is  rapidly  enabling  the  white  man  to  combat  the 
diseases  which  have  been  so  deadly  in  tropical  regions.  In 
other  ways,  also,  we  are  learning  to  overcome  the  disad- 
vantages of  a  tropical  environment.  Does  this  give  us 
ground  for  believing  that  races  of  European  origin  can  dwell 
permanently  within  the  tropics  and  retain  not  only  their 
health,  but  the  physical  energy  and  mental  and  moral  vigor 
which  have  enabled  them  to  dominate  the  world?  The 
success  which  has  thus  far  been  attained  in  this  attempt  can 
scarcely  be  considered  encouraging,  but  is  that  any  reason 
for  discouragement  in  the  future? 

185 


342619 


186  .«,   •  •   ..    ..EJLl^SWORTH'  HUNTINGTON 

In  order  to  make  our  discussion  concrete,  let  us  limit  it 
to  South  and  Central  America,  and  to  that  portion  which 
lies  within  twenty  degrees  of  the  equator.  By  taking  this 
latitude  as  a  boundary  we  exclude  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  the 
southern  part  of  Brazil,  where  most  of  the  strength  of  that 
country  lies,  although  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  actual 
area  lies  within  our  boundaries.  We  may  also  exclude  the 
City  of  Mexico,  although  it  lies  slightly  less  than  20°  from 
i  the  equator.  This  leaves  southern  Mexico,  Central  America, 
Colombia,  Venezuela,  Guiana,  Ecuador,  Peru,  Bolivia,  and 
all  except  the  most  progressive  part  of  Brazil.  These  coun- 
tries have  an  area  of  nearly  5,000,000  square  miles,  or  fully 
one  and  one-half  times  as  much  as  the  United  States.  The 
population  is  estimated  at  only  35,000,000  or  40,000,000. 
In  this  vast  area  the  number  of  genuine  white  men,  that  is, 
people  of  pure  European  race,  is  only  a  few  million,  and 
most  of  these  are  confined  to  the  seacoast,  or  to  relatively 
small  areas  among  the  mountains.  An  area  of  4,000,000 
square  miles  is  today  practically  untouched  by  the  white 
man,  except  when  he  comes  temporarily  in  the  character 
of  an  exploiter,  or  as  an  official  of  one  of  the  South  American 
republics.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  does  there  appear  to 
be  so  vast  an  area  which  at  the  same  time  contains  so  few 
people,  and  has  such  enormous  latent  wealth.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  travelers  grow  enthusiastic  over  it,  and  that 
those  who  believe  that  through  the  elimination  of  disease 
the  white  man  will  be  enabled  to  live  here,  are  convinced 
that  a  wonderful  future  is  in  store  for  it.  This  is  probably 
true,  but  before  these  countries  can  rival  those  of  tem- 
perate regions  we  must  know  vastly  more  than  is  now  the 
case  as  to  how  man  is  influenced  by  his  environment.  Today 
the  most  advanced  regions  within  the  limits  here  defined 
are  typified  by  southern  Mexico,  with  its  happy-go-lucky 
peasants  and  banditti; Guatemala,  with  its  unchanging, stolid 
Indians,  who  literally  will  not  work  so  long  as  they  have 
anything  to  eat;  Nicaragua  and  Honduras,  with  their  con- 
stant revolutions;  Ecuador,  with  its  callous  indifference  to 
the  direst  plagues  in  its  own  ports,  and  Peru,  where  in  spite 
of  the  culture  of  the  small  number  of  Spanish  inhabitants, 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  187 

the  vast  majority  are  utterly  illiterate.  We  are  apt  to 
blame  the  people  of  these  tropical  countries  for  their  back- 
ward condition,  but  in  that  we  sadly  wrong  them.  They 
are  not  backward  because  they  want  to  be  so,  and  they 
would  gladly  make  progress  if  they  could.  Something  holds 
them  back  against  their  will,  and  we  who  have  the  good 
fortune  not  to  be  thus  held  back  can  do  no  greater  service 
either  to  ourselves  or  to  them  than  to  discover  exactly  what 
that  something  is.  In  order  to  do  this,  the  first  requisite 
is  a  clear  understanding  of  our  problem.  Therefore  it  will 
be  well  to  review  some  of  the  conditions  which  for  ages 
have  acted  as  handicaps  to  every  race  whose  lot  has  been 
cast  in  tropical  America.  Let  us  first  consider  the  effect  of 
these  conditions  upon  primitive  people,  and  then  see  how 
far  there  is  a  reasonable  prospect  that  the  white  man  can 
overcome  them.  Some  of  the  conditions  which  we  shall 
consider  are  familiar,  and  have  been  much  discussed,  but 
others  have  received  relatively  little  attention. 

To  begin  with  one  of  the  most  familiar  topics,  the  ease 
with  which  a  living  can  be  made  is  constantly  cited  as  one 
of  the  reasons  for  the  backwardness  of  tropical  people.  The 
importance  of  this  among  lower  races  can  scarcely  be  ques- 
tioned. If  the  traditional  palm-tree  will  support  a  family, 
the  members  of  that  family  are  not  likely  to  work,  except 
under  some  unusual  impulse.  The  necessity  to  provide  for 
a  cold  winter,  or  for  a  long  dry  season,  does  not  trouble 
them.  Clothing  may  be  desirable  because  it  is  the  fashion, 
and  because  it  serves  as  a  means  of  adornment,  but  it  is 
not  a  real  necessity.  A  warm  house  is  equally  unnecessary, 
and  a  shelter  from  the  rain  can  quickly  be  made  with  a 
few  poles  and  palm  leaves.  Where  such  conditions  prevail, 
progress  is  almost  out  of  the  question,  since  there  is  no 
stimulus — nothing  to  promote  ambition  or  energy.  In  Cen- 
tral and  South  America,  however,  this  most  exploited  hin- 
drance of  equatorial  countries  seems  to  be  of  relatively  small 
importance.  In  certain  regions,  to  be  sure,  the  means  of 
supporting  life  can  be  obtained  with  great  ease,  but  this  is 
limited  to  restricted  areas,  chiefly  near  the  coast,  or  on  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains.     Elsewhere,  which  means  in  by 


188  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

far  the  larger  part  of  tropical  America,  the  case  is  quite 
different.  Although  a  small  number  of  people  can  support 
a  precarious  existence  in  primitive  fashion,  their  lot  is  by 
no  means  easy,  and  the  population  cannot  become  dense, 
nor  can  it  greatly  advance  in  civilization,  because  as  yet  no 
means  have  been  devised  whereby  a  large  number  of  people 
can  procure  a  living. 

This  is  due  to  the  conditions  of  agriculture.  The  ease, 
or  rather  the  difficulty,  with  which  agriculture  can  be  carried 
on  in  tropical  countries  is  greatly  misunderstood.  The  ordi- 
nary traveler  sees  the  luxuriant  vegetation  and  infers  that 
crops  can  be  raised  with  great  ease.  Noting,  however,  that 
in  the  few  places  where  fields  are  cultivated  they  are  usually 
full  of  stumps,  bushes  and  large  weeds,  he  promptly  accuses 
the  natives  of  shiftlessness.  He  sees  too  that  a  field  is  cul- 
tivated this  year  and  abandoned  next,  and  proceeds  to  berate 
the  natives  for  lack  of  persistence.  He  fails  to  realize  that 
throughout  large  portions  of  tropical  America  agriculture 
is  so  difficult  that  even  the  white  man  has  not  yet  learned 
to  carry  it  on.  He  may  raise  bananas  and  coffee  in  a  few 
limited  areas,  but  he  does  not  do  this  in  the  worst  places. 
Moreover  these  crops  are  much  easier  to  raise  than  are  the 
staple  crops  which  have  to  be  planted  every  year.  I  do 
not  mean  by  this  that  he  could  not  raise  the  staple  crops, 
provided  fevers  did  not  exclude  him  from  large  areas,  but 
merely  that  he  has  not  yet  done  it.  In  the  regions  to  which 
I  refer,  that  is,  such  places  as  large  portions  of  the  Amazon 
Basin,  rain  falls  at  almost  all  times  of  the  year,  and  the 
dry  season  is  so  short,  or  at  least  so  interrupted  by  showers 
that  the  forests  always  remain  damp,  and  vegetation  grows 
with  extraordinary  luxuriance.  Any  one  who  has  tried  to 
keep  a  garden  free  from  weeds  during  a  rainy  summer  will 
appreciate  the  difficulty,  but  his  task  is  incomparably  easier 
than  that  of  the  denizens  of  the  tropics,  for  he  has  the 
winter  to  help  him.  Moreover  he  can  cultivate  his  land 
every  year  instead  of  intermittently. 

As  an  example  of  the  difficulties  of  agriculture,  let  us  take 
the  Pacific  slope  of  Guatemala,  which  is  by  no  means  the 
wettest  part  of  the  country.     I  traversed  the  region  in 


THE   WHITE   MAN   AND   TROPICAL   AMERICA  189 

March,  1913,  in  the  middle  of  the  dry  season.  The  people 
had  recently  finished  the  work  of  making  the  season's  clear- 
ings. The  traveler  in  such  a  region  wonders  at  first  why 
everyone  seems  to  be  clearing  new  fields.  The  reasonable 
thing  would  seem  to  be  to  burn  the  corn  stalks  and  weeds, 
and  cultivate  the  old  fields  again,  but  this  is  not  done.  After 
a  field  has  once  been  cultivated  it  is  allowed  to  lie  fallow  for 
four  years.  The  first  crop  is  abundant  and  requires  a  rela- 
tively small  amount  of  labor,  but  if  the  same  field  is  planted 
a  second  time,  the  crop  is  very  scanty.  Apparently  the 
soil  is  quickly  exhausted,  perhaps  because  of  rapid  weathering 
under  the  influence  of  constant  heat,  and  rapid  leaching 
because  of  constant  moisture,  or  perhaps  because  of  certain 
bacteria  which  flourish  in  tropical  climates  and  break  up 
the  nitrogenous  elements  of  the  soil  thus  destroying  their 
value  as  plant-food.  Plowing  might  perhaps  help  matters, 
but  it  is  very  difficult — far  more  so  than  in  temperate 
regions.  In  the  first  place,  when  a  field  is  newly  cleared 
the  roots  and  stumps  prevent  plowing.  If  the  field  is  left 
until  the  stumps  have  rotted,  new  plants  grow  up  to  such 
an  extent  that  a  fresh  clearing  is  necessary,  and  the  process 
of  plowing  is  still  very  difficult.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
year  after  an  ordinary  field  has  been  sown,  plowing  is  out 
of  the  question  except  where  the  most  advanced  methods 
are  available,  and  it  is  of  no  use  to  burn  the  fields  over  and 
plant  a  new  crop,  for  the  return  will  not  justify  the  labor. 
Hence,  after  one  cultivation,  fields  must  be  allowed  to  lie 
fallow  for  about  four  years.  During  this  period  the  bushes 
grow  to  a  height  of  ten  to  twenty  feet,  according  to  the 
amount  of  rainfall,  and  the  ground  recovers  its  vitality. 
Then  the  bushes  are  again  cut  and  allowed  to  dry,  and  when 
the  land  has  been  burned  off  a  good  crop  may  be  raised. 
Evidently  the  clearing  and  burning  of  the  bushes  are  essen- 
tial parts  of  agriculture.  If  the  dry  season  is  long,  this 
process  is  easy,  for  three  weeks  of  steady  sun  suffice  to  dry 
all  but  the  larger  trunks  sufficiently  so  that  they  can  be 
burned.  If  showers  fall  every  day  or  two,  however,  the 
trees  and  bushes  have  little  chance  to  dry.  This  happened 
in  1913  in  Guatemala,  and  I  saw  many  fields  where  the 

THE  JOURNAL  OF  RACE   DEVELOPMENT,  VOL.  5,   NO.   2,    1914 


190  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

vegetation  had  been  cut  but  could  not  be  burned.  After 
the  dry  season  was  over,  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to  burn 
the  brush,  for  even  if  it  had  been  dry  enough  the  new  vege- 
tation, which  had  instantly  sprung  up,  was  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent burning.  Without  burning,  it  would  have  been  use- 
less to  plant  corn,  for  the  native  vegetation  would  have 
strangled  it.  Hence  in  many  cases  the  people  raised  no 
corn  crop  that  year. 

Conditions  of  this  sort  prevail  not  only  in  large  parts  of 
Central  America,  especially  on  the  east  side,  but  through- 
out much  of  the  Amazon  Basin.  Just  how  large  the  area 
is,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  probably  2,000,000  or  more 
square  miles  is  no  exaggeration.  In  all  this  region,  then, 
it  has  hitherto  been  practically  out  of  the  question  to  clear 
the  forest  and  get  it  dry  enough  to  burn.  Hence  agricul- 
ture has  been  impossible,  and  will  remain  so  until  the  white 
man  introduces  wholly  new  methods.  This  he  will  doubt- 
less do,  but  the  task  will  not  be  easy.  I  would  emphasize 
once  more  that  although  the  white  man  has  shown  himself 
able  to  raise  bananas  and  coffee  on  the  borders  of  the  moist 
tropical  areas  he  has  not  done  so  in  the  worst  portions. 
Moreover,  he  has  devoted  himself  to  special  crops  which 
yield  a  large  return  in  proportion  to  the  labor,  and  which 
do  not  have  to  be  planted  every  year.  They  will  always 
be  important  as  luxuries,  or  even  necessities,  in  northern 
countries,  but  they  cannot  be  the  primary  food  crops  of  a 
dense  population.  The  primary  crops,  for  the  most  part, 
must  be  planted  each  year,  and  this  involves  the  plowing  of 
the  land,  or  else  the  cutting  and  burning  of  the  bushes  in 
order  to  give  the  seeds  a  chance.  This  can  of  course  be 
done  if  sufficient  effort  is  expended,  but  the  fact  remains 
that  throughout  a  large  part  of  tropical  South  America  the 
task  is  so  difficult  that  neither  the  white  man  during  the 
past  four  hundred  years,  nor  the  native  races  during  thou- 
sands of  years,  ever  seem  to  have  accomplished  it  in  such 
places  as  the  great  Amazon  Basin. 

Before  passing  on  to  more  important  matters  mention 
should  be  made  of  another  factor  which  prevents  people 
from  living  permanently  in  certain  portions  of  the  tropics 


THE   WHITE   MAN   AND   TROPICAL   AMERICA  191 

and  from  developing  a  high  civilization.  The  difficulty  in  this 
case  arises  from  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  rainfall  dur- 
ing the  various  seasons  of  the  year.  For  instance,  portions 
of  the  vast  grassy  plains,  or  Llanos,  of  the  Orinoco  Valley 
are  almost  impassable  at  certain  seasons,  because  they  are 
flooded  by  the  heavy  equatorial  rains.  Yet,  during  the  long 
dry  season,  which  here  prevails  during  our  winter  months, 
those  same  plains  become  so  dry  that  in  many  places  it  is 
impossible  to  get  water  except  by  digging  deep  wells.  The 
difficulties  which  here  confront  agriculture  are  so  great  that 
the  native  races  have  never  succeeded  in  surmounting  them. 
In  fact  before  the  introduction  of  cattle,  agriculture  was 
quite  impossible  for  another  and  wholly  different  reason. 
There  was  no  means  of  breaking  up  the  sod,  which  is  an 
essential  prerequisite,  if  crops  are  to  be  raised.  Even  the 
white  man  has  found  agriculture  so  difficult  that  he  has 
rarely  attempted  it,  and  has  utilized  the  plains  only  for 
cattle  raising.  This  also  is  beset  with  many  difficulties, 
because  of  the  superfluous  supply  of  water  and  mud  at  some 
seasons,  and  the  drought  at  others.  In  still  other  regions, 
although  a  fairly  dense  growth  of  jungle  covers  the  ground, 
the  water  supply  presents  a  serious  difficulty,  for  during  the 
long  dry  season  most  of  the  springs  disappear;  hence  deep 
wells  are  necessary  and  these  are  a  difficult  matter  for  prim- 
itive people,  not  well  equipped  with  iron  tools.  This,  it  is 
true,  has  little  direct  influence  upon  the  white  man,  but 
indirectly,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  it  adds  its  quota  to  his 
difficulties. 

The  fact  that  in  large  portions  of  tropical  America  it  has 
thus  far  been  impossible  for  any  large  number  of  people  to 
obtain  a  living  has  most  important  consequences  in  more 
favored  regions.  Among  the  factors  which  most  promote 
progress,  the  intercourse  of  race  with  race  holds  a  highly 
important  place.  Even  the  most  active  and  energetic  com- 
munity is  likely  to  stagnate  if  left  to  itself.  In  tropical 
regions  the  conditions  which  have  just  been  described  render 
intercourse  peculiarly  difficult.  Where  vast  areas  are  unin- 
habited because  of  dense  forests  and  the  consequent  diffi- 
culty of  agriculture,  and  others  because  of  floods  and  excess 


192  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

of  water  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  long  dry  period  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  the  places  where  people  can  live 
are  likely  to  be  very  much  scattered.  The  dense  forest  is 
almost  impassable.  It  is  usually  the  haunt  of  dangerous 
wild  beasts,  and  it  presents  a  barrier  quite  as  effective  as 
lofty  mountains  or  sandy  deserts.  The  swamps  and  mud 
due  to  excessive  floods  are  not  quite  such  serious  barriers, 
since  they  disappear  during  the  dry  season.  Even  then, 
however,  difficulties  arise,  for  the  distance  from  water  to 
water  is  often  great,  and  there  are  no  villages  where  food 
and  shelter  can  be  obtained.  Thus  intercourse  is  hindered 
not  only  by  mountains,  seas  and  the  ordinary  obstacles 
which  play  a  part  in  the  temperate  zones,  but  by  other  and 
even  more  efficient  obstacles.  Hence  the  primitive  inhab- 
itants of  tropical  America  have  had  little  intercourse  with 
one  another,  and  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  the  con- 
stant stimulus  derived  from  contact  with  new  ideas  and 
habits.  This  would  seem  to  be  one  of  the  important  rea- 
sons why  the  people  of  the  tropics  have  remained  backward. 
Even  today  it  is  producing  important  results.  Wherever 
white  men  have  settled  in  tropical  America  they  are  iso- 
lated. Peru,  for  instance,  has  little  communication  with 
the  rest  of  the  world;  the  same  is  true  of  Ecuador  and  Co- 
lombia, and,  to  a  less  extent,  of  Venezuela.  This  is  partly 
due  to  their  mountains,  but  far  more  to  the  fact  that  the 
great  plains  to  the  east  of  them  are  even  now  practically 
impassable.  If  the  plains  of  the  Amazon  Basin  were  as 
easily  crossed,  and  as  densely  inhabited  as  the  plains  of 
Illinois  and  Iowa,  Peru  would  be  almost  as  much  in  touch 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  as  is  California. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  of  some  of  the  handicaps  which 
apply  to  primitive  people,  but  which  can  ultimately  be  over- 
come by  energetic  races  of  northern  origin.  There  is  one 
way,  however,  in  which  for  a  long  time  to  come  these  con- 
ditions will  act  as  a  handicap  even  to  the  Northerners. 
Partly  because  of  them,  and  partly  for  other  reasons,  the 
native  inhabitants  of  Central  and  South  America,  that  is, 
the  Indians,  are  very  backward.  They  are  dull  of  mind 
and  slow  to  adopt  new  ideas.     Perhaps  in  the  future  they 


5 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  193 

will  change,  but  the  fact  that  they  have  been  influenced 
so  little  by  four  hundred  years  of  contact  with  the  white 
man  does  not  afford  much  ground  for  hope.  Judging  from 
the  past,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  their  character  is 
likely  to  change  for  many  generations.  Until  that  time 
comes  they  will  be  one  of  the  white  man's  greatest  obstacles. 
Experience  in  all  parts  of  the  world  shows  that  the  presence 
of  an  inferior  race  in  large  numbers  tends  constantly  to 
lower  the  standards  of  the  dominant  race.  This  can  scarcely 
be  emphasized  too  strongly.  Here  in  America  we  know  to 
our  cost  that  the  presence  of  the  negro,  even  though  he  forms 
only  a  ninth  part  of  the  population,  is  one  of  our  gravest 
problems.  If  he  could  be  eliminated  from  the  southern 
states,  their  future  would  be  much  brighter  than  is  now  the 
case.  Yet  they  are  not  so  great  a  handicap,  apparently,  as 
the  native  races  of  Central  and  South  America.  Whatever 
the  negro  may  have  been  when  he  was  first  brought  to 
America,  he  is  certainly  now  far  less  stolid  and  indifferent, 
far  more  subject  to  stimulating  influences  than  the  Indians 
of  tropical  America.  It  is  literally  true  in  Guatemala,  for 
instance,  that  the  more  an  Indian  is  paid  the  less  he  will 
work.  If  one  day's  pay  will  buy  two  day's  food,  he  will 
work  half  the  time,  if  the  pay  is  increased  so  that  one  day's 
pay  will  buy  food  for  three  days,  he  will  work  one-third  of 
the  time.  The  experiment  has  been  tried  again  and  again, 
and  there  is  practically  universal  agreement  as  to  its  result. 
The  most  considerate  employers  of  tropical  labor  agree  with 
the  most  inconsiderate  in  saying  that  in  general  it  is  useless 
to  attempt  to  spur  the  Indians  by  any  motive  beyond  the 
actual  demands  of  food  and  shelter.  Kindness  and  consid- 
eration on  the  part  of  the  employer  undoubtedly  promote 
faithfulness,  but  they  seem  rarely  to  arouse  ambition  or 
energy.  With  the  negro,  as  everyone  knows,  somewhat  the 
same  condition  prevails,  but  by  no  means  to  so  great  an 
extent.  In  Central  America,  for  example,  it  is  generally 
thought  that  a  negro  from  Jamaica  is  somewhat  more  effi- 
cient than  an  Indian,  while  a  negro  from  the  United  States 
is  much  more  efficient.  The  negro  in  the  United  States  is 
generally  considered  to  be  more  efficient  than  he  was  in 


194  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

Africa,  whereas  the  Indian  of  tropical  America,  staying  in 
his  old  environment,  does  not  seem  to  have  changed.  Doubt- 
less the  change  in  the  negro  is  due  to  a  new  social  environ- 
ment quite  as  much  as  to  a  new  physical  environment,  and 
many  authorities  believe  that  the  change  in  social  environ- 
ment is  vastly  the  more  important  of  the  two.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  materially  alter  the  case.  As  conditions  are 
now,  it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  change  the  physical 
environment  of  the  Indians  so  long  as  they  remain  in  their 
present  habitat,  and  it  seems  to  be  extremely  difficult,  also, 
to  change  their  social  environment.  Those  who  dwell  per- 
manently in  the  white  man's  cities  are  influenced  somewhat, 
but  here  as  in  other  cases,  the  general  tendency  seems  to 
be  to  revert  to  the  original  condition  as  soon  as  the  special 
impetus  of  immediate  contact  with  the  white  man  is  re- 
moved. I  think  we  may  fairly  say  that  this  has  been  the 
case  almost  everywhere  within  twenty  degrees  of  the  equa- 
tor. Here  again  I  would  not  be  understood  as  saying  that 
it  will  necessarily  continue  thus,  but  merely  that  the  process 
of  change  is  bound  to  be  very  slow.  The  aborigines  show 
no  sign  of  disappearing,  or  of  being  swallowed  up  by  a  multi- 
tude of  immigrants,  as  has  been  the  case  in  temperate  lati- 
tudes. On  the  contrary  there  appears  to  be  a  general  im- 
pression that  in  the  equatorial  countries  of  Latin  America 
the  proportion  of  Indian  blood  is  increasing  at  the  expense 
of  the  pure  white.  This  is  because  the  white  man,  except 
perhaps  in  a  few  favored  places,  suffers  from  tropical  diseases 
far  more  than  does  the  native,  and  unless  he  is  wise  enough 
to  adopt  the  latest  discoveries  of  medical  science  his  chil- 
dren die  or  grow  up  weak.  It  is  notoriously  true  that  in 
India  there  is  almost  no  such  thing  as  a  fourth  generation 
of  Indian-born  British.  The  original  stock  is  so  weakened 
by  tropical  conditions  that  the  children  must  either  be  sent 
back  to  Europe  to  recover  their  health,  or  else  they  become 
enfeebled  and  their  descendants  soon  die  out.  Even  with 
the  help  of  modern  medical  science,  it  is  far  from  certain 
that  the  number  of  permanent  white  inhabitants  of  the 
tropics  can  increase  greatly,  and  there  is  reason  to  think 
that  that  same  medical  science  may  do  much  to  prevent 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL   AMERICA  195 

the  death  of  children  among  the  natives,  and  may  thus 
gradually  increase  their  numbers.  Such  an  increase  of  the 
natives  has  already  occurred  in  India,  not  so  much  because 
of  the  conquering  of  diseases,  as  because  of  the  prevention 
of  famine. 

If  the  conclusion  just  reached  is  correct,  we  seem  to  be 
justified  in  the  further  conclusion  that  for  a  long  time  to 
come  tropical  America  will  contain  a  dull,  unprogressive 
Indian  population.  The  presence  of  such  a  population  will 
constantly  expose  the  white  man  to  a  most  deteriorating 
influence.  For  example,  the  inferior  mental  ability  of  the 
lower  race,  and  its  incapacity  for  effective  organization  is 
almost  sure  to  lead  to  the  abuse  of  its  labor  and  to  its 
exploitation  in  some  form  of  peonage,  even  though  the  fact 
may  be  disguised  by  legal  phraseology.  Again,  the  presence 
of  a  despised  race,  which  cannot  easily  retaliate  when  im- 
posed upon,  is  almost  certain  to  lead  to  low  sexual  morality. 
In  the  same  way,  political  equality  is  almost  certain  to  become 
a  mere  form  of  speech,  for  the  dominant  race  will  not  per- 
mit the  other  to  gain  rights  at  its  expense.  Manual  labor, 
too,  will  be  despised,  for  it  will  be  associated  with  the  idea 
of  an  inferior  race.  All  these  things  may  be  looked  upon  as 
disadvantages  of  the  lower  race  rather  than  of  the  higher, 
but  I  believe  that  the  higher  race  reaps  by  far  the  greater 
injury.  The  conditions  which  have  just  been  mentioned 
appear  to  be  among  the  most  potent  factors  in  rendering  it 
difficult  for  the  white  man  to  attain  as  much  success  in 
tropical  regions  as  in  those  farther  to  the  north  or  south. 
Their  evil  effect  is  roughly  proportional  to  the  difference 
between  the  two  races.  That  difference  is  at  a  maximum 
where  a  low  tropical  race  remains  in  its  original,  unstimu- 
lating  environment,  and  is  brought  in  contact  with  immi- 
grants of  a  highly  developed  race  who  completely  change 
their  environment.  The  newcomers  are  released  from  old 
restraints  at  the  time  when  they  come  into  contact  with 
conditions  which  make  a  peculiar  demand  for  exactly  those 
restraints.  Hence,  instead  of  being  stimulated  to  greater 
political  freedom  and  equality,  sterner  morality,  and  more 
intense  industry,  as  was  the  case  among  the  settlers  in  New 


196  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

England,  the  immigrants  who  come  from  the  North  to  tropi- 
cal America  are  in  danger  of  being  weakened  in  all  of  these 
respects.  The  effect  on  the  original  immigrants  is  bad 
enough,  but  on  their  children  it  is  far  worse.  The  settler, 
or  European  colonist,  possessed  of  wealth  and  power,  can 
to  a  slight  degree  shield  his  children  from  the  deteriorating 
influence  of  the  natives,  but  even  in  such  cases  children  are 
in  constant  contact  with  servants.  They  grow  up  with  a 
supreme  contempt  for  the  natives,  and  at  the  same  time  with 
the  feeling  that  they  can  treat  them  as  they  choose.  If 
poorer  people,  that  is,  colonists  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word,  attempt  to  live  in  the  tropics  in  large  numbers,  espe- 
cially if  they  are  people  who  work  with  their  hands,  their 
children  are  exposed  still  more  to  all  the  contaminating 
influences  of  contact  with  the  natives.  Hence  the  second 
and  third  generations,  and  the  fourth  and  fifth,  if  there  are 
any,  suffer  more  than  their  ancestors. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  external  handicaps; 
that  is,  with  those  which  may  have  an  important  effect 
upon  the  white  man,  but  which  are  outside  him.  Let 
us  turn  now  to  others  which  touch  him  more  vitally.  The 
first  of  these  is  tropical  diseases.  This  subject  has  been  so 
much  discussed  that  I  shall  here  refer  to  it  only  briefly. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  malaria,  and  the  many  other 
diseases  which  are  characteristic  of  tropical  countries,  have 
much  to  do  with  the  low  state  of  civilization  in  those  regions. 
The  old  idea  that  the  people  who  live  in  tropical  regions 
are  immune  to  local  diseases  is  no  longer  accepted  by  stu- 
dents of  tropical  medicine.  Adults,  to  be  sure,  are  often 
immune,  but  apparently  this  not  true  of  the  race  as  a  whole. 
Vast  numbers  of  children  die  in  infancy  and  early  child- 
hood from  the  same  diseases  which  prevent  the  white  man 
from  permanently  living  in  the  tropics.  Others  suffer  from 
the  diseases,  but  recover.  They  bear  the  results  with  them 
to  the  grave,  however,  in  the  form  of  enlarged  spleens,  or 
other  grave  injuries  to  the  internal  organs  of  the  body. 
The  world  has  of  late  years  been  astonished  at  ravages  of 
pellagra  and  other  diseases  due  to  such  organisms  as  the 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  197 

hookworm.  We  have  found  that  people  who  are  subject 
to  them  cannot  be  highly  competent.  Their  mental 
processes,  as  well  as  their  physical  activity,  are  dulled.  So 
long  as  a  community  is  constantly  afflicted  with  such  dis- 
orders, there  is  little  hope  that  it  can  rise  high  in  the  scale 
of  civilization.  All  this  is  now  universally  recognized,  and 
need  not  here  be  further  amplified.  Nothing  is  more  hope- 
ful for  the  tropics  than  the  rapid  progress  which  has  been 
and  is  being  made  in  the  control  of  these  diseases.  If  they 
could  be  eliminated,  not  only  would  the  white  man  be  able 
to  live  permanently  where  now  he  can  be  only  a  sojourner, 
but  the  native  races  would  probably  be  greatly  benefited. 
How  great  this  benefit  would  be  we  cannot  yet  tell,  but  it 
is  highly  probable  that  the  elimination  of  the  diseases  which 
especially  affect  children  in  the  tropics  would  do  much  to 
increase  the  vitality,  energy  and  initiative  of  the  native 
races.  This  in  itself  would  be  an  immeasurable  boon  not 
only  to  the  natives  themselves,  but  to  the  white  man,  who 
would  thereby  be  freed  in  part  from  some  of  his  worst  social 
dangers. 

This  highly  desirable  result  cannot  be  obtained  quickly. 
We  hear  it  said  sometimes  that  the  achievements  of 
the  United  States  in  Panama  prove  that  diseases  can  be 
eliminated  anywhere  in  tropical  countries.  This  is  true, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  Panama  is  a  highly  special- 
ized case.  During  the  building  of  the  Canal  a  great  number 
of  people  were  collected  into  a  small  area,  and  enormous 
sums  of  money  were  freely  expended.  Everyone,  too,  was 
subject  to  strict,  semi-military  rule,  and  similar  conditions 
will  presumably  continue  under  civil  rule.  Such  methods 
cannot  be  applied  to  millions  of  square  miles.  The  expense 
would  be  absolutely  prohibitive.  The  ordinary  farmer  in 
tropical  regions  cannot  expect  to  be  protected  by  his  gov- 
ernment. He  must  protect  himself.  In  the  long  run  even 
tropical  races  may  learn  to  do  this,  but  it  will  be  a  difficult 
and  expensive  matter,  and  will  require  a  radical  change  in 
the  people  themselves.  That  change  will  doubtless  come, 
but  not  for  generations,  and  not  until  a  long  selective  proc- 


198  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

ess  has  gone  on  whereby  those  who  do  not  adopt  modern 
medical  methods  for  preserving  health  will  be  gradually 
eliminated,  while  those  who  adopt  them  will  persist. 

We  now  come  to  what  seems  to  be  the  most  important 
portion  of  our  subject.  It  is  likewise  the  portion  as  to  which 
we  must  speak  with  the  most  hesitation.  We  may  hope 
that  the  white  man  will  ultimately  cultivate  the  forests, 
traverse  the  waste  places,  elevate  the  native  races,  and  con- 
quer the  diseases  of  the  tropics,  but  will  he  do  this  as  a 
genuine  colonist,  or  as  an  outsider  whose  mind  is  always 
full  of  the  idea  of  getting  back  "Home?"  The  answer  de- 
pends largely  upon  the  extent  to  which  he  can  permanently 
retain  his  physical,  mental,  and  moral  vigor — not  merely 
for  a  few  years,  but  for  generations.  Hence  we  are  led  to 
inquire  whether  aside  from  the  specific  diseases  which  can 
be  eliminated,  there  is  anything  in  a  tropical  climate  which 
prevents  a  vigorous  development  of  civilization.  I  realize 
that  in  entertaining  this  possibility  I  am  going  counter  to 
the  opinion  of  practically  all  anthropologists,  and  I  am  not 
at  all  confident  that  I  have  reached  a  final  solution.  All 
that  I  can  do  is  to  present  certain  facts  which  have  lately 
been  discovered,  and  show  what  seem  to  be  their  logical 
consequences.  These  facts  seem,  at  first  sight,  most  dis- 
couraging. They  apparently  indicate  that  even  though  the 
diseases  of  tropical  regions  be  overcome,  northern  races  can- 
not there  be  as  efficient  as  they  are  in  their  own  habitat. 
In  hot  climates  man  appears  to  be  handicapped  by  a  defi- 
nite lowering  not  only  of  his  physical  energy,  but  of  his 
mental  activity  and  moral  vigor.  I  would  hasten  to  add, 
however,  that  this  does  not  mean  that  this  inhibition  of 
activity  cannot  be  counteracted.  It  may  perhaps  be  no 
more  formidable  a  handicap  than  are  tropical  diseases, 
although  its  elimination  will  probably  not  take  place  so 
quickly. 

Before  coming  to  the  causes  of  such  a  climatic  inhibition, 
let  me  call  attention  to  one  of  the  most  notable  and  regret- 
table effects  of  a  tropical  environment.  This  is  the  lack  of 
will  power  which  is  almost  everywhere  displayed  by  a  large 
proportion  of  the  northerners  who  come  to  equatorial  regions. 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TEOPICAL  AMERICA  199 

It  manifests  itself  in  four  special  ways,  namely,  in  relative 
lack  of  industry,  in  an  irascible  temper,  in  drunkenness, 
and  in  sexual  indulgence.  For  the  present  we  are  not  con- 
cerned with  whether  these  things  are  due  to  physical  or 
social  environment.  Doubtless  the  two  work  together.  The 
point  upon  which  to  fix  attention  is  that  for  some  reason 
self-control,  which  is  merely  another  name  for  will  power, 
seems  to  diminish  among  practically  all  people  who  go  to 
tropical  countries. 

In  the  amount  of  work  accomplished,  that  is,  in  the  qual- 
ity known  as  industry,  the  difference  between  people  in 
tropical  and  other  climates  is  very  noticeable.  Practically 
every  northerner  who  goes  to  the  torrid  regions  of  America 
says  at  first  that  he  works  as  well  as  at  home,  and  that  he 
finds  the  climate  delightful.  Little  by  little,  however,  even 
though  he  retains  perfect  health,  he  slows  down.  He  does 
not  work  so  hard  as  before,  nor  does  the  spirit  of  ambition 
prick  him  so  keenly.  If  he  is  on  the  low,  damp  seacoast, 
the  letting  down  process  is  relatively  rapid,  although  its 
duration  may  vary  enormously  in  different  individuals.  In 
the  dry  interior  the  process  is  slower,  and  on  the  high  pla- 
teaus it  may  take  many  years.  Both  in  books  and  in  con- 
versation with  inhabitants  of  tropical  regions  one  finds  prac- 
tical unanimity  as  to  this  tropical  inertia,  and  it  applies 
both  to  body  and  mind.  After  long  sojourn  in  the  tropics 
it  is  hard  to  spur  one's  self  to  the  physical  effort  of  a  difficult 
mountain  climb,  and  it  is  equally  hard  to  force  one's  self 
to  think  out  the  various  steps  in  a  long  chain  of  reasoning. 
The  mind,  like  the  body,  wants  rest.  Both  of  them  can 
be  spurred  to  activity  but  the  activity  exhausts  one's  vital- 
ity. When  we  come  to  the  explanation  of  this  well  recog- 
nized inertia,  however,  there  is  much  divergence  of  opinion. 
One  man  will  say  that  within  the  tropics  the  northerner 
does  not  need  to  work  so  hard  as  farther  north,  because 
salaries  are  higher;  another  says  it  is  because  servants  are 
cheap;  still  another  claims  that  hard  work  is  dangerous  to 
the  health,  and  almost  all  agree  that  "  anyhow  one  doesn't 
feel  like  working  down  here."  Probably  all  four  of  these 
factors  cooperate  and  each,  doubtless,  produces  pronounced 


200  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

results,  but  the  last  two,  that  is,  health  and  "feeling,"  seem 
to  be  the  most  important  when  many  generations  are  taken 
into  account.  In  spite  of  individual  exceptions,  it  seems  to 
be  generally  true  that  white  men  who  spur  themselves  up 
to  work  as  hard  within  the  tropics  as  they  do  at  home  are 
in  great  danger  of  breaking  down  in  health.  They  become 
nervous  and  enfeebled,  and  are  likely  to  succumb  to  some 
of  the  many  tropical  diseases.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  deterents  to  the  development  of  an  efficient  white 
population  in  tropical  regions.  If  the  more  energetic  mem- 
bers of  the  community  ruin  their  health,  they  are  pretty 
sure  to  die  before  their  time  unless  they  go  back  to  the 
north.  Thus  if  white  colonization  takes  place  on  a  large 
scale  in  tropical  America  there  is  grave  danger  that  the  less 
energetic  elements  will  be  the  ones  to  persist  and  to  become 
the  ancestors  of  the  future  population.  The  other  factor, 
the  feeling  of  inertia,  may  perhaps  be  interpreted  by  tele- 
ologists  as  a  merciful  provision  of  Providence  to  warn  the 
white  man  that  he  must  not  work  too  hard  in  the  torrid 
zone,  but  that  will  scarcely  help  to  advance  civilization. 
Few  people  will  question  the  reality  of  the  tropical  inertia. 
It  is  the  same  lassitude  which  every  one  feels  on  a  hot  sum- 
mer day — the  inclination  to  sit  down  and  dream,  the  tend- 
ency to  hesitate  before  beginning  a  piece  of  work,  and  to 
refrain  from  plunging  into  the  midst  of  it  in  the  energetic 
way  which  seems  to  be  natural  under  more  stimulating 
conditions. 

Lack  of  will  power  is  shown  by  northerners  in  tropical 
regions  not  only  in  loss  of  energy  and  ambition,  but  in  fits 
of  anger.  The  English  official  who  returns  from  India  is 
commonly  described  as  "choleric."  Every  traveler  in  tropi- 
cal countries  knows  that  he  sometimes  bursts  into  anger  in 
a  way  that  makes  him  utterly  ashamed,  and  which  he  would 
scarcely  believe  possible  at  home.  Almost  any  American 
or  European  who  has  traveled  or  resided  in  tropical  America 
will  confess  that  he  has  occasionally  flown  into  a  passion, 
and  perhaps  used  physical  violence,  under  circumstances 
which  at  home  would  merely  have  made  him  vexed.  This 
is  due  apparently  to  four  chief  causes.     One  of  these  is  the 


THE   WHITE   MAN   AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  201 

ordinary  tropical  diseases,  for  when  a  man  has  a  touch  of 
fever,  or  of  some  other  illness,  and  is  afraid  that  he  is  in 
for  a  long  siege,  his  temper  is  apt  to  get  the  better  of  him. 
In  the  second  place,  the  slowness  of  tropical  people  is  terri- 
bly exasperating.  The  impatient  northerner  uses  every  pos- 
sible means  to  make  the  natives  hurry,  or  to  compel  them 
to  keep  their  word  and  do  things  according  to  their  prom- 
ises. His  energy  is  usually  wasted — the  natives  do  not  seem 
to  be  influenced  at  all,  and  the  only  visible  result  is  an 
angry  and  ridiculous  foreigner.  Yet  there  are  often  circum- 
stances where  a  show  of  anger  and  violence  seem  to  be  the 
only  ways  of  getting  things  done,  and  this  is  frequently 
used  as  an  excuse  for  lack  of  self-control.  A  third  reason 
for  choleric  temper  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  consequences 
of  becoming  angry  are  less  dangerous  than  elsewhere,  be- 
cause the  inert  people  of  tropical  America  often  submit  to 
indignities  which  an  ordinary  white  man  would  bitterly 
resent.  Of  course  they  resent  ill  treatment,  and  will  retali- 
iate  if  possible,  but  they  generally  do  not  have  sufficient 
energy  or  cunning  to  make  their  vengeance  effective  against 
the  powerful  white  man.  Finally,  those  who  have  lived  in 
the  tropics  generally  find  that,  even  when  things  go  quite 
smoothly,  and  when  they  are  in  contact  with  people  of 
their  own  kind  and  are  in  comparatively  good  health,  they 
are  on  the  whole  more  irritable  than  at  home.  In  other 
words,  their  power  of  self-control  is  enfeebled.  Of  course 
there  are  many  exceptions,  but  that  does  not  affect  the 
general  principle. 

Drunkenness,  our  third  evidence  of  lack  of  self-control, 
need  scarcely  be  discussed.  The  white  man's  alcohol  in  the 
form  of  rum  is  scarcely  more  injurious  to  the  natives  of 
Africa  than  is  his  alcohol  in  other  forms  in  tropical  America. 
In  most  portions  of  Central  America  the  highly  intoxicating 
drink  known  as  "Agua  ardiente"  ("white-eye"),  can  be 
procured  very  cheaply.  In  some  places,  such  as  Guatemala 
and  parts  of  Mexico,  where  I  speak  from  personal  experi- 
ence, drunken  men  and  women  may  be  seen  upon  the  streets 
at  almost  any  time  of  day.  Nowhere  else,  during  extensive 
travels  in  America,  Europe  and  Asia,  have  I  ever  seen  so 


202  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

much  drunkenness  as  in  Guatemala.  Among  the  white  men 
who  go  to  tropical  America  a  large  number  drink  as  badly 
as  do  the  natives.  Various  causes  for  this  can  readily  be 
seen.  The  drunkenness  of  the  natives  is  partly  due  to  the 
cheapness  with  which  strong  intoxicants  can  be  prepared 
from  the  lees  of  sugar,  or  other  sources.  That  of  the  white 
men  arises  partly  from  the  constant  heat  which  makes  peo- 
ple want  something  to  drink  at  all  times,  partly  from  the 
monotony  of  life,  and  still  more  from  the  absence  of  the 
social  restraints  which  exercise  so  powerful  an  inhibitory 
influence  at  home.  Back  of  all  these  things,  however,  among 
both  the  white  men  and  natives,  there  seems  to  lie  a  cer- 
tain enfeeblement  of  the  will  which  may  be  closely  con- 
nected with  the  physical  inertia  which  prevents  people  from 
working  hard,  and  with  the  lack  of  self-control  which  mani- 
fests itself  in  bursts  of  anger. 

The  last  of  the  ways  in  which  weakness  of  will  is  evident 
in  tropical  America  is  in  the  relation  of  the  sexes.  Upon 
this  rock  a  large  number  of  northerners  are  wrecked.  It  is 
due  partly  to  the  low  standards  of  the  natives  themselves, 
partly  to  the  mode  of  dress  among  the  women,  which  con- 
stantly calls  attention  to  their  sex,  and  partly  to  the  free 
open  life  which  naturally  prevails  in  warm  countries.  In 
addition  to  this  there  seems  to  be  another  reason.  Either 
the  actual  temptation  to  sexual  excess  is  greater  than  else- 
where, or  else  the  inhibitory  forces  are  weakened  by  the 
same  effects  which  cause  people  to  drink,  to  become  angry, 
and  to  work  slowly.  Perhaps  the  matter  can  best  be  illus- 
trated by  a  remark  of  a  missionary  of  a  small  and  extremely 
devout  sect,  a  most  austere  man,  whose  whole  soul  was 
devoted  to  preaching  the  gospel.  Speaking  of  Central  Amer- 
ica in  general  he  said:  "When  I  am  in  this  country  evil 
spirits  seem  to  attack  me.  I  suppose  you  would  call  it 
something  else,  but  that  is  what  I  think  they  are.  When 
I  am  at  home  in  the  United  States  I  feel  pure  and  true, 
but  when  I  come  here  it  seems  as  if  lust  was  written  in  the 
very  faces  of  the  people."  His  experience  is  that  of  prac- 
tically all  northerners.  The  evil  effects  of  undue  sexual 
indulgence  need  not  be  discussed.     I  shall  merely  refer  to 


THE   WHITE   MAN   AND   TKOPICAL  AMERICA  203 

a  remark  of  Gouldsbury  and  Sheane,  in  their  authoritative 
book  on  the  Great  Plateau  of  Rhodesia.  They  hold  that 
one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  backwardness  of  the  people 
of  Rhodesia  is  that  so  large  a  part  of  their  thought  and 
energy,  especially  in  youth,  is  swallowed  up  in  purely  sexual 
matters. 

The  serious  evils  mentioned  in  the  preceding  para- 
graphs, that  is,  a  diminution  of  energy,  outbursts  of  tem- 
per, drunkenness,  and  immorality,  are  ascribed  by  many 
people  to  social  causes.  I  recognize  the  importance  of  this 
view  and  largely  concur  in  it.  Nevertheless,  consideration 
of  some  statistics  which  I  have  recently  compiled  suggests 
that  physical  causes  may  play  an  equally  important  role. 
Two  years  ago,  at  a  conference  on  Japan,  corresponding  to 
our  present  conference  on  South  and  Central  America,  I 
briefly  mentioned  certain  investigations  on  the  effect  of  dif- 
ferent climatic  conditions  upon  human  activity.  The  prob- 
lem which  then  presented  itself  was  to  make  actual  meas- 
urements of  the  effect  produced  by  different  climates.  Ob- 
viously it  is  impossible  to  do  this  directly.  It  might,  of 
course,  be  possible  to  measure  the  efficiency  of  two  similar 
groups  of  people  of  the  same  race,  age  and  general  status, 
under  different  types  of  climatic  conditions.  The  results, 
however,  would  be  absolutely  inconclusive.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  determine  whether  any  differences  which  were 
discovered  were  due  to  original  differences  in  the  people,  to 
differences  in  their  food,  or  to  a  hundred  other  variable 
factors.  Another  possible  test  would  be  to  take  a  given 
group  of  students,  for  example,  whose  homes  were,  let  us 
say,  in  southern  Texas,  but  who  were  studying  in  the  north. 
They  could  be  tested  while  living  in  the  north  and  again  in 
the  south,  but  here  again  the  results  would  have  little  value, 
because  the  change  from  one  place  to  the  other  would  in 
itself  create  a  difference  in  the  minds  of  the  subjects.  It 
would  also  be  practically  impossible  to  make  sure  that  their 
diet,  occupations  and  general  environment,  aside  from  the 
matter  of  climate,  were  the  same  in  both  cases.  After  due 
consideration  of  these  matters,  the  only  practicable  test, 
for  the  present  at  least,  seems  to  be  to  take  a  group  of 


204  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

people — factory  hands,  for  instance — and  compare  their  effi- 
ciency from  day  to  day.  Their  social  environment,  food 
and  mode  of  life  remain  unchanged.  Aside  from  changes 
in  factory  management,  and  other  similar  matters  for  which 
proper  allowance  can  be  made,  the  only  changes  which  influ- 
ence all  the  members  of  such  a  group  are  those  connected 
with  the  weather,  or  with  the  coming  of  Christmas,  or  simi- 
lar seasonal  occurrences.  By  choosing  people  who  are  do- 
ing piece  work  which  is  recorded  day  by  day,  it  is  possible 
to  determine  the  relative  efficiency  on  days  of  any  given 
temperature,  or  on  damp  days,  windy  days,  and  so  forth. 
When  such  data  are  properly  compiled  they  show  how  peo- 
ple would  behave  under  all  sorts  of  climatic  conditions. 

In  pursuance  of  this  object  I  have  obtained  the  statistics 
of  about  500  people  for  each  day  during  the  year.  They  were 
piece  workers  in  factories  in  southern  Connecticut,  partly 
men  and  partly  girls.  In  order  to  combine  mental  and 
physical  work,  I  have  also,  through  the  courtesy  of  Pro- 
fessor Cattell  of  Columbia  University,  obtained  figures 
for  tests  of  three  children  upon  the  typewriter.  The  tests 
extended  over  a  period  of  two  years.  They  were  made 
daily  during  the  first  year,  and  weekly  during  the  second. 
A  third  line  of  evidence,  purely  mental  consists  of  the 
daily  marks  of  fifteen  hundred  students  at  the  Military 
Academies  at  Annapolis  and  West  Point.  Thus  we  have 
tests  of  both  physical  and  mental  activity.  Both  types 
show  the  same  phenomena.  I  do  not  here  propose  to  dis- 
cuss the  results  in  detail,  for  they  are  embodied  in  a  series 
of  articles  in  Harper's  Magazine  and  in  a  volume,  entitled 
The  Distribution  of  Civilization,  shortly  to  be  published. 
I  shall  merely  give  one  or  two  conclusions. 

The  first  and  most  important  conclusion  is  that  in  spite  of 
man's  boasted  independence  of  climate  by  reason  of  fire,  cloth- 
ing, and  houses,  he  is  influenced  by  the  outside  temperature  in 
much  the  same  way  as  are  plants  and  animals.  Biologists  have 
long  known  that  every  species  of  plant  grows  best  at  what 
is  termed  its  "optimum"  temperature.  Growth  begins  at 
a  temperature  a  few  degrees  above  freezing,  but  is  then 
very  slow.     As  the  temperature  rises  the  rate  of  growth 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  205 

increases,  slowly  at  first,  then  rapidly,  and  finally  slowly 
once  more  until  the  optimum  is  reached.  Then,  if  the  tem- 
perature rises  still  higher  the  rate  of  growth  begins  to  decline 
and  soon  falls  off  very  rapidly. 

Recent  studies  seem  to  show  conclusively  that  animals  are 
influenced  by  temperature  in  the  same  way  as  plants.  In 
the  case  of  the  crayfish,  for  example,  the  matter  has  been 
investigated  with  great  care.  The  curve  of  activity  of  such 
an  animal  closely  resembles  that  of  plants,  although  of 
course  the  optimum  temperature  varies  according  to  the 
species.  The  method  of  investigation  consists  in  measuring 
the  amount  of  oxygen  consumed  in  a  given  time  at  a  given 
temperature,  or  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  given  off. 
Other  chemical  reactions  of  the  body  have  also  been  exam- 
ined with  similar  results.  The  whole  subject  is  in  its  infancy, 
but  certain  facts  are  already  clear.  The  activity  of  an 
organism  is  closely  related  to  the  speed  with  which  oxi- 
dation takes  place,  and  the  completeness  and  rapidity 
with  which  waste  products  are  removed  from  the  body.  At 
low  temperatures  plants  and  cold-blooded  animals  cannot 
grow  rapidly  or  be  very  active,  simply  because  the  various 
chemical  processes  of  life  cannot  take  place  fast  enough. 
As  the  temperature  rises  these  processes  all  become  more 
rapid,  and  the  organism  exhibits  greater  energy  which  mani- 
fests itself  either  in  movement  or  in  the  laying  on  of  new 
tissue.  This  continues  until  a  point  is  reached  where  the 
chemical  processes  take  place  so  fast  and  break  down  the 
tissues  so  rapidly  that  it  is  physically  impossible  for  the 
organism  to  get  from  the  air  enough  oxygen  fully  to  oxidize 
the  broken  down  materials.  Unless  these  are  oxidized  they 
are  not  easily  eliminated.  Hence  they  accumulate  in  the 
body,  and  apparently  act  almost  like  poisons.  As  soon  as  this 
occurs  the  activity  of  the  organism  declines,  and  there  is  a 
correspondingly  smaller  necessity  for  oxygen.  Thus  a  certain 
amount  of  oxygen  is  left  unused  by  the  fundamental  life 
processes,  and  is  available  to  oxidize  and  remove  the  inju- 
rious waste  materials  which  have  begun  to  accumulate.  If 
an  organism,  because  of  strength  of  will,  fear  of  enemies, 
desire  for  food,  or  some  other  stimulus,  is  unduly  active  at 

THE  JOURNAL  OF  RACE   DEVELOPMENT,  VOL.   5,    NO.   2,    1914 


206  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

high  temperatures,  it  lays  up  within  its  own  body  a  store 
of  unoxidized  and  unexcreted  waste  materials  which  either 
lead  to  death,  if  the  unfavorable  conditions  continue,  or 
else  necessitate  periods  of  the  least  possible  activity  in  order 
that  nature  may  restore  the  disturbed  balance.  The  whole 
matter  is  too  complicated  to  be  explained  in  detail,  and  it 
needs  far  more  extensive  study  on  the  part  of  biologists. 
We  do  not  yet  know  how  the  effects  of  temperature  upon 
warm-blooded  animals  compare  with  those  observed  in 
cold-blooded  animals  and  plants.  Nevertheless  the  strik- 
ing resemblance  of  the  curves  of  physical  activity  of  fac- 
tory operatives  and  of  mental  activity  of  students,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  the  curves  of  plant  growth  and  of  physiolog- 
ical activity  among  lower  animals,  on  the  other  hand,  sug- 
gest that  a  close  relationship  between  temperature  and 
activity  is  a  universal  biological  law. 

For  the  people  thus  far  tested,  practically  all  of  whom 
were  descendants  of  the  more  progressive  nations  of  north- 
western Europe,  the  temperature  of  greatest  physical  ef- 
ficiency is  59°  or  60°  F,  while  for  mental  activity  it  may  be 
somewhat  lower.  This  conclusion  is  especially  important 
because  of  the  large  number  of  people  involved.  It  agrees 
with  some  results  obtained  by  Lehmann  and  Pedersen  in 
Denmark  on  the  basis  of  three  individuals.  The  fact 
that  even  when  only  a  few  individuals  are  tested,  the 
relationship  is  apparent  shows  how  universally  the  same 
law  applies.  The  optimum  temperature  may  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  individual  and  according  to  the  race,  but 
the  amount  of  variation  is  probably  only  a  few  degrees, 
and  it  makes  no  difference  as  to  our  present  conclusions. 
The  common  idea  that  we  are  most  active  in  cold  weather 
is  deceptive.  To  be  sure,  we  are  active  when  we  are  out 
in  the  cold,  because  we  must  keep  warm,  but  the  actual 
amount  of  work  accomplished  in  winter  is  much  less  than 
in  the  spring  and  fall.  Low  temperature,  however,  does  not 
seem  to  produce  such  lasting  effects  as  does  warm.  It  may 
cause  the  body  to  burn  up  its  materials  too  fast,  but  it  does 
not  load  it  with  harmful  unoxidized  waste,  or  in  some  other 
way  inhibit  activity.      This   apparently   is   why  tropical 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL   AMERICA  207 

peoples  have  rarely  been  characterized  by  great  achieve- 
ments, and  why  the  white  man  today  is  less  efficient  in  the 
tropics  than  elsewhere. 

In  the  lowlands  of  tropical  America  the  temperature  is 
everywhere  above  the  optimum.  This  means  that  there 
is  no  escape  from  unfavorable  conditions,  and  that  the 
inhabitants  of  that  region,  no  matter  what  their  race,  can- 
not be  expected  to  be  active  in  body  and  especially  in 
mind,  or  strong  in  will  so  long  as  present  conditions  continue. 
This,  however,  is  by  no  means  the  whole  story.  The  work 
done  by  factory  hands  and  others  in  Connecticut  shows  that 
another  climatic  element  is  of  vital  importance.  In  all  the 
cases  examined  it  was  found  that  while  the  mean  tempera- 
ture is  the  most  important  of  the  climatic  factors,  the 
change  of  temperature  from  one  day  to  the  next  has  an 
influence  which  cannot  be  ignored,  and  which  may  be  almost 
equally  great.  If  the  temperature  today  is  the  same  as 
yesterday,  people  work  comparatively  slowly.  If  the  tem- 
perature today  is  higher  or,  more  especially,  lower  than 
yesterday,  people  are  stimulated,  and  the  stimulus  is 
almost  proportional  to  the  amount  of  change.  The  only 
exception  is  that  an  extreme  change  appears  to  be  too  much, 
and  does  not  produce  proportionate  results.  The  way  in 
which  the  stimulus  acts  may  be  illustrated  by  a  simple 
comparison.  Consider  the  difference  between  the  amount 
of  ground  covered  by  a  horse  that  is  allowed  to  go  his  own 
gait  and  by  one  that  is  gently  urged  at  proper  intervals. 
If  the  animal  is  constantly  but  slightly  urged — as  man  would 
be  by  a  temperature  which  is  highly  favorable,  but  which 
never  changes — he  will  go  fairly  fast,  but  will  at  length  be- 
come exhausted.  If  he  is  somewhat  urged,  however,  and 
then  allowed  to  go  more  slowly,  and  then  urged  again,  he 
will  cover  the  ground  faster  than  if  allowed  to  go  his  own 
jogging  gait,  and  he  will  require  less  time  for  rest  because 
he  will  be  less  exhausted.  Apparently  this  is  what  happens 
to  mankind  in  temperate  regions.  Change  from  season  to 
season  stimulates  him,  and  then  lets  him  fall  back  to  a 
slower  pace;  change  from  day  to  day  has  the  same  effect, 
but  on  a  smaller  scale.     Hence  he  is  kept  up  to  his  work, 


208  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

and  therefore  accomplishes  much.  In  tropical  America  just 
the  opposite  happens.  The  mean  temperature  throughout 
most  of  the  lowlands  is  above  80°  F.  Therefore  the  amount 
of  accomplishment  must  be  relatively  small.  This,  however, 
is  by  no  means  the  worst  feature.  Far  more  injurious  is 
the  fact  that  even  in  the  mountains  where  the  mean  tem- 
perature often  falls  to  a  favorable  level  there  is  no  appre- 
ciable seasonal  stimulus,  and  no  daily  changes  such  as  ac- 
company our  storms.  Therefore  the  human  horse  gradually 
drops  to  a  low  state  of  efficiency.  This  is  not  mere  theory 
— it  is  simply  a  logical  application  of  what  actually  happens 
every  year  among  the  people  of  Connecticut  and  other 
parts  of  the  eastern  United  States.  If  those  people  were 
put  into  a  tropical  environment,  and  all  other  conditions 
of  their  enviromnent  remained  exactly  the  same  as  at  pres- 
ent, their  efficiency  would  drop  greatly.  By  special  effort 
they  might  remain  for  a  time  not  far  below  their  present 
level,  but  special  efforts  cannot  last  year  after  year  without 
exhausting  people's  vitality.  Whether  the  decrease  in  effi- 
ciency would  be  10  or  50  per  cent  we  cannot  yet  determine, 
but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  would  be  large.  Nor  is  the  mere 
decrease  in  physical  activity  the  most  important  feature  of 
the  case.  Since  common  experience  shows  that  as  a  rule 
our  minds  work  best  when  our  bodies  are  in  good  health, 
and  since  our  investigations  show  that  physical  and  mental 
work  are  influenced  in  essentially  the  same  way,  it  follows 
that  the  high  temperature  and  lack  of  change  in  tropical 
America  presumably  weaken  the  power  of  man's  mind. 
This,  perhaps,  accounts  for  the  fact  that  almost  no  great 
ideas  have  ever  been  born  and  perfected  within  the  tropics. 
The  same  sluggishness  of  mind  which  prevents  the  faculty 
of  invention  from  being  highly  developed  may  account  for 
the  lack  of  will  power  which  seems  to  be  the  greatest  of  all 
tropical  handicaps. 

Taken  as  a  whole  the  results  which  have  just  been  set 
forth  seem  at  first  sight  most  discouraging.  They  seem  to 
imply  that  although  the  white  man,  coming  temporarily  as 
a  sojourner,  may  overcome  the  physical  obstacles  of  tropical 
America,  and  may  learn  to  protect  himself  from  tropical 


THE   WHITE   MAN  AND   TROPICAL  AMERICA  209 

diseases  so  that  he  can  dwell  there  permanently,  he  must 
apparently  face  the  fact  that  his  vitality  and,  still  more, 
that  of  his  children,  will  inevitably  be  depressed.  He  will 
not  be  able  to  work  as  he  did  in  more  northern  climates, 
and  he  cannot  have  the  self-control  and  mental  activity 
which  he  there  possessed.  He  goes  to  the  tropics  with  an 
inheritance  vastly  better  than  that  of  the  aborigines,  and 
this  will  stand  him  in  good  stead  for  many  generations,  but 
yet  in  the  end  his  lot  seems  no  better  than  theirs,  for  if  he 
stays  there  permanently,  he  is  in  serious  danger  of  slipping 
slowly  backward,  simply  because  he  cannot  make  the  stren- 
uous exertions  by  which  people  in  more  favored  regions 
are  continually  going  on  to  some  new  achievement. 

This  discouraging  view  is  by  no  means  justified.  It  is 
like  that  of  the  poor  laborers  who  went  about  in  mobs  to 
break  up  machinery  when  the  steam  engine  was  first  intro- 
duced. They  thought  that  machinery  was  taking  the  bread 
from  their  mouths.  They  little  realized  that  it  would 
put  into  the  hands  of  their  children  hundreds  of  things 
which  in  their  own  day  were  possible  only  for  the  rich. 
The  view  of  South  America  here  presented  is  in  reality  ex- 
tremely hopeful.  Everyone  recognizes  that  tropical  regions 
are  backward,  and  that,  in  spite  of  all  our  optimistic  talk, 
we  have  made  almost  no  progress  toward  any  permanent 
occupation  or  development  of  millions  of  square  miles  of 
what  are  probably  the  most  productive  regions  in  the  world. 
We  must  frankly  face  the  fact  that  even  the  little  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  recent  decades  is  almost  entirely 
the  work  of  men  from  the  north,  and  that  generally  the 
important  things  are  done  by  the  first  generation,  or  else 
by  people  of  later  generations  whose  lives  have  in  good 
measure  been  spent  in  more  favored  regions  away  from  their 
tropical  homes.  Four  centuries  ago  the  world  stood  face  to 
face  with  the  wonderful  opportunity  of  a  new  world.  For 
a  hundred  years  almost  nothing  was  done  in  the  way  of 
permanent  colonization.  Except  for  a  few  Spanish  colonies 
Europe  was  content  merely  to  explore  and  exploit.  Then 
the  temperate  regions  of  North  America  began  to  be  settled, 
and  to  grow  great,  and  later  their  example  was  followed 


210  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 

by  the  temperate  lands  of  South  America.  Today  our  atti- 
tude toward  the  less  favored  tropical  portions  of  South  and 
Central  America  is  almost  like  that  of  Europe  toward  Amer- 
ica as  a  whole  three  hundred  years  ago.  In  1600  A.  D.  not 
a  single  successful  colony  had  been  established  in  what  are 
now  the  most  successful  parts  of  the  New  World.  That 
fact  might  then  have  seemed  as  discouraging  as  does  our 
present  lack  of  success  within  the  tropics. 

The  comparison  that  has  just  been  made  does  not  quite 
cover  the  real  conditions.  We  might  better  compare  our- 
selves with  a  primeval  group  of  naked,  fireless,  houseless 
savages  who  want  to  inhabit  a  land  where  the  winters  are 
long  and  cold.  Such  men  would  say  that  while  an  occa- 
sional man,  hardier  than  his  fellows,  might  stay  in  such  a 
land  through  the  winter,  and  while  it  might  be  possible  for 
many  people  to  go  there  in  summer,  permanent  occupation 
of  the  country  was  absolutely  out  of  the  question.  This 
view  would  not  be  at  all  unreasonable.  Yet  if  some  happy 
accident  led  one  of  the  savages  to  discover  how  warm  a 
man  might  be  when  he  stripped  the  hide  from  a  bear  and 
threw  it  around  himself,  how  quickly  there  would  be  a 
change  of  opinion.  When  fire  became  known  opinion  would 
change  still  more.  And  when  some  lucky  genius  discovered 
that  a  man  could  pile  up  stones  or  sticks  and  cover  them 
with  mud  or  skins  or  grass  and  thereby  form  a  house  which 
would  keep  out  rain,  snow  and  wind,  and  within  which  a 
fire  could  be  made,  would  not  the  whole  tribe  laugh  at  their 
former  lack  of  faith?  Or  rather  would  not  each  one  say 
that  he  had  always  expected  some  such  thing,  and  that  he 
was  on  the  very  point  of  making  a  bearskin  coat,  inventing 
a  house  and  discovering  fire  when  someone  else  got  ahead 
of  him? 

Today  we  are  like  these  savages.  We  have  long  recog- 
nized that  there  is  some  fatal  influence  which  has  kept  trop- 
ical regions  from  developing  on  a  par  with  temperate  regions. 
The  vast  majority  of  us  believe  that  this  is  due  to  climate. 
Our  trouble  has  been  that  we  have  not  understood  exactly 
how  climatic  influences  work.  We  have  not  known  whether 
they  actually  cause   the  human  mind  to   deteriorate,  or 


THE   WHITE   MAN   AND   TEOPICAL  AMERICA  211 

whether  they  merely  hinder  its  development.  We  have  not 
known  whether  the  white  man  can  live  and  thrive  in  the 
tropics,  or  whether  he  must  inevitably  deteriorate.  Only 
one  thing  has  been  clear,  namely,  that  the  most  obvious 
tropical  hindrance  is  the  terrible  prevalence  of  disease.  This 
we  have  attacked,  and  our  final  success  can  scarcely  be 
doubted,  although  there  is  a  vast  amount  still  to  be  done. 
We  have  reached  the  position  of  the  savages  after  they 
discovered  the  use  of  clothing,  but  before  they  had  learned 
to  use  fire  and  houses.  Our  next  task  is  to  find  out  more 
precisely  how  temperature  and  changes  of  temperature,  to- 
gether with  humidity  and  other  climatic  factors,  affect  the 
human  system.  We  must  measure  all  sorts  of  physiologi- 
cal and  psychological  functions  in  terms  of  these  factors, 
and  we  must  be  able  to  work  out  the  exact  measure  of  the 
influence  of  any  given  type  of  climate.  Then  we  shall  be 
ready  to  search  for  remedies.  Perhaps  we  shall  devise  some 
means  of  varying  our  supply  of  oxygen.  Possibly  we  shall 
give  the  people  of  tropical  regions  the  necessary  variety  of 
climate  by  moving  them  in  wholesale  fashion  from  the 
mountains  to  the  plains  and  back  again  at  short  inter- 
vals. Possibly  we  shall  devise  a  plan  whereby  some 
means  of  creating  the  stimulus  which  now  comes  from  the 
optimum  temperature  and  from  frequent  changes  shall  be 
as  much  a  part  of  a  tropical  house  as  a  stove  or  furnace  is 
a  part  of  a  house  in  regions  with  cold  winters.  All  these 
are  vague  suggestions,  but  they  indicate  the  sort  of  things 
that  may  perhaps  be  done.  The  future  of  South  America 
depends  largely  on  our  success  along  these  lines.  We  have 
conquered  low  temperature  in  large  measure.  Our  next 
great  task  is  to  conquer  the  uniform  heat  of  the  lands  within 
the  tropics. 


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AUG  9     1934 


MAR  25  1944 


APR  6- 1968  76 


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